An urgent, deeply researched reckoning with the role of tech in our classrooms – from neuroscientist, researcher and former teacher Dr Jared Cooney Horvath. 'Terrifying and essential reading.' HUGH GRANT, BAFTA-Winning Actor and Education Advocate 'Not anti-tech, but pro-learning. If you are an educator or a parent, you’ll want to read this book.' JONATHAN HAIDT, bestselling author of The Anxious Generation.
Our children are struggling. Is technology in the classroom to blame? For the first time in recent history, children are falling behind previous generations in many key measures of learning and cognitive development. Schools, once thriving with human connections, are now dominated by screens and digital tools. The result is unmistakably clear in places: declining performance, fragmented attention, and the slow erosion of rigorous thinking.
Here, neuroscientist and educator Dr Jared Cooney Horvath reveals how the widespread use of laptops, learning apps, and artificial intelligence in the classroom undermines how children learn and develop. Drawing on decades of research, he exposes the myths driving the rise of ‘EdTech’ to show: Why students using computers daily in school score up to a year and a half behind their peers. How reading on screens causes a breakdown in learning, triggering a shift from deep understanding to superficial scanning. What AI is doing in schools – accelerating cognitive outsourcing and encouraging shallow thinking and overconfidence.
But it’s not too late to resist. Horvath proposes a clear path to put people – not programs – back at the center of education, offering practical strategies for families to reconsider device use at home and for educators to restore attention-rich learning environments. His book is not a call to reject technology. It is a call to reclaim real learning.
'Empowers us to fight back to bring learning back to our schools.' ANNA LEMBKE, bestselling author of Dopamine Nation. 'A thoughtful and important takedown that every parent should read. It will liberate you – and change how you think about your children’s learning.' JOHANN HARI, bestselling author of Stolen Focus.
